In a ruling late Thursday, 3/6, NTSB Administrative Law Judge Patrick Geraghty ruled that the FAA policy banning the commercial operation of unmanned aircraft is “non-binding”, hence unenforceable. The judge found that the policy wasn’t written as part of a formal rulemaking process and the FAA hadn’t complied with the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act. The FAA policy was published in the Federal Register in 2007 and has effectively banned the operation of commercial and public use UAS in the national airspace over the past seven years.
This finding came as part of the judge ‘s ruling on attorney Brendan Schulman’s motion to dismiss FAA’s Order of Assessment against Raphael Pirker, aka “Trappy”. Mr. Pirker was fined $10,000 by the FAA under 14 CFR 91.13 for allegedly operating an aircraft in a careless and reckless manner while flying a UAS through the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia.
This ruling effectively lifts the ban on the commercial operation of small unmanned aircraft, those aircraft that would otherwise meet the description of a model aircraft.
It’s a bit too soon to say how the FAA will respond to the ruling, or what this means to the UAS community. But, by all accounts, this is a game changer.